Documentation

The public deliverables of the ELF project are available from this page.

For an overview about the technical architecture of the European Location Framework and additional information continue reading...

The ELF Platform (http://locationframework.eu/) is at the core of the technical architecture of ELF. It comprises the datasets provided by National Mapping and Cadastral Authorities (NMCAs) and – in the future – other data providers. Using ELF geo-tools, the datasets are prepared by the NMCAs to conform to the applicable ELF data and product specifications.

The ELF Platform provides INSPIRE view and download services as well as other service interfaces to users of the ELF. "Users" includes end-users, application developers using ELF services and data in their applications as well as developers that provide ELF data in other platforms.

In addition to governmental spatial data infrastructures, typically based on OGC Web Services, there are other important platforms where geospatial data is used and value is created through applications. To support application developers with a preference for a particular platform, the European Location Framework aims at providing its data also for access in platforms with a large potential for data reuse in applications. These platforms are called ELF-affiliated platforms and are important for the broad use of ELF. In addition to the ELF platform that is operated under the auspices of the NMCAs, the ELF-affiliated platforms will be hubs for ELF data. At the moment, ArcGIS Online is supported as an ELF-affiliated platform (http://elf.maps.arcgis.com/).

Overview of the components of the ELF technical architecture and infrastructure and links to more information:

The ELF glossary includes general terms that are meant to be valid indefinitely in the context of ELF. For example, products and licenses are defined on the general level, not the specific products and licenses used for ELF as they will change. The selection of terms is based on the following criteria: The term is unique for ELF and requires explanation, or the term is necessary to explain the unique ELF terms.

Tools are required to harmonize the authoritative reference geo-information supplied by the NMCAs and integrate it into the required ELF geometric and semantic information, such that the national data will be transformed to provide a coherent set of ELF platform reference datasets. As such the basis for the use of the tools will be the general guidelines and rules defined within the INSPIRE service architecture.

The ELF Platform provides access to datasets provided by European National Mapping and Cadastral Authorities (NMCAs) via View and Download services. Detailed information about the datasets and services is available through the Geo Product Finder as part of the Showcase Application (click on "Search").

The layers can be added and discovered like any other feature layer in ArcGIS (see, for example, here for a description how to search for layers in the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer and add them to a map). The ELF datasets are published in a group "ELF Consortium" and members of that group have access to the layers. I.e., to add layers from an ELF dataset to ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro or the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, follow the standard process of the client to add ELF layers.

Currently, the following data is available in ArcGIS Online to the partners in the ELF project: sample areas of selected national datasets on the master level covering the data themes listed in the ELF specifications as well as the pan-European datasets of EuroGeographics. The EuroGlobalMap dataset is publicly available.